|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:31:59 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:37:18 GMT -6
Aster wasn't expecting all that much when he made his way to the quest board this month. It had been a lot of small, odd jobs, good for some money and a nice change of pace, along with an assortment of other small rewards. Some of it had been a little more risky than others--- the one in the mines came to mind--- but he'd come out of it fairly unscathed.
He wasn't expecting anything like being accosted by a clearly distressed young man, begging him to go to a tower and kill something. Well, maybe 'accosted' was a bit of a strong word, but once the guy got going, his entreaty had been pretty passionate. Desperation wasn't a good look on anyone, and he was no exception.
The money they were offering was good, he supposed. There had been promises too, of favors of some sort. The young man was some kind of mage, and the tower's owner was evidently another, evidently of greater skill.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:40:31 GMT -6
But what it amounted to in the end, as he was given to understand it, was that he was being sent in to clean up someone else's mess. Compensated, to be sure, but all the same.
On the one hand, just thinking about the kinds of havoc people were wreaking on the sly here gave him a headache. He'd heard rumors about unscrupulous practices at the labs too, though he hadn't experienced it much firsthand. For a long time, he had practiced a sort of willful ignorance, positioning himself at the fringes of city society, and telling himself that he was just here to make use of the opportunities the place afforded. If he kept his distance, he'd reasoned, he could probably make it out mostly unscathed if things ever got bad in a hurry.
Still, it offered him little comfort to see firsthand evidence of something he had suspected was happening all along.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:45:58 GMT -6
On the other hand though, he would probably be out of work if it wasn't for the laziness and mistakes of other people. And the money, as he had already seen, wasn't too bad.
If it had just been an issue of money, however, he might still have declined the job. He wasn't doing badly enough anymore that he was forced to take anything that came his way. His own motivations for taking on the job were twofold: first, to see exactly what kind of mischief the mages here were capable of cooking up--- or perhaps more importantly, get himself a glimpse as to how they were directing their efforts.
The second was to test whether he was adequately prepared.
Willful ignorance or not, he still wanted to be able to protect himself. And while this wasn't an ideal situation to 'practice' with, it still afforded him something of an opportunity. The man had only mentioned a single monster, after all.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:49:36 GMT -6
This wasn't to say that he expected it to be easy just because there was only one thing to contend with. He had raised a Thundergug himself, among other things, so Aster knew full well just how destructive a single creature could be. But he could at least rule out the dangers of a 'strength in numbers' situation. If the guy had been telling the truth, anyway. He'd given his word that he would make an attempt at it, however. Thus, he found himself at the foot of a tower with Avander in tow, a few days after having met with the man at the quest board. The two of them looked at the tower together. It was impressive in its scale, though a glance was enough to tell Aster that the building was old. The lower portion of it was well covered with ivy, so much so that it was hard to make out any of the stone beneath.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:54:23 GMT -6
The tower had a tapering design, but the first few floors, at least, looked to be quite spacious. That was good news for the two of them. Avander was by no means a small creature. Fitting inside was one thing, but even then, in cramped quarters, he would have more trouble maneuvering and bringing his full capabilities to bear against whatever was inside.
The alternative would have been to have Aster go in alone, and try to draw the thing out of the tower somehow, so Avander could get at it in the open. But that was inevitably the more dangerous plan, and in fact, Avander had come along almost purely to make sure he didn't attempt it.
[Don't suppose there's a bell you could ring?] the drake said, studying the tall double doors that faced them.
"What, and spoil the surprise for them?" Aster replied. That being said though, the doors looked pretty heavy. If he thought they were going to be able to slip in unnoticed, he was probably sorely mistaken on that front.
(Avander: +1)
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 19:58:16 GMT -6
They could have scouted for a window or something, some other alternative entry point, but Aster felt that it was just going to be a futile endeavor. The odds that they would be any quieter, while being at the same time an opening that Avander could fit through, were slim to none.
Front door it was, then.
Aster approached the door and unlocked it with the key that he had been given. Not even the lock was quiet, though there were things other than age at play: he felt a strange buzzing sensation against his skin as he turned the key, and strange though it was, he had the notion that something was... acknowledging him, although with some reluctance. Magical wards, like as not; it was foolish to think of a mage of significant power as not having some sort of defense in place.
A good thing, then, that they hadn't tried to break through a window after all.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 24, 2019 20:10:09 GMT -6
Whatever those defenses were, the key was enough to gain him passage through them, and the door opened by itself with a groan. If that groan had a distinct air of protest to it, Aster ignored it. He was here on a mission, and had no desire to stay any longer than he had to, especially knowing that there was something on the loose inside.
Avander walked forward as the door opened, and Aster let him take point, falling back not too far behind the drake as they advanced. This was a practical arrangement: Avander's senses were sharper, and he had more in the way of practical experience against larger foes. He was also faster, which generally made all the difference in a fight.
The interior wasn't exactly dark, but Aster could tell that what light there was came from the windows, filtering in from outside. There was no immediate sign of anyone else in there with them, though there were plenty of signs that someone had taken their leave of the place in a hurry.
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Jul 25, 2019 3:35:28 GMT -6
It was quiet for a small amount of time; but a slight echo of a noise further on could be lightly detected... What was that? Did it actually make sense for it to sound like it was coming from that far away?
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 27, 2019 9:27:43 GMT -6
Everything had been thrown into disarray, books flung about, some resting half open, others sitting haphazardly with pages folded in upon themselves. Smaller pieces of furniture were also strewn across the floor. Objects that might have been magical instruments, by sheer value of Aster not knowing what else they could have been, occasionally turned up among the clutter.
Picking one up was tempting for just the briefest moment, but Aster decided against it almost immediately. He didn't know what anything did, or how to work it. If even the key to the tower had what passed for personality in an inanimate object, how might these other things protest to being manhandled?
There were stories of fae creatures, where one was warned not to eat anything or accept any gifts while within their borders. Aster felt that the approach might do him good here too. Gingerly he stepped through the mess of it after Avander.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 27, 2019 9:35:01 GMT -6
The drake was picking his way through it rather more easily, for all that he was so much bigger and had four feet to contend with.
Avander suddenly stopped in his tracks. Aster was about to ask what he was doing, but then he was spared the trouble when he heard it too: some sort of noise echoing through the room. Avander had cocked his head to one side, small ears turning in the apparent direction of the sound.
[There's something off about it,] the drake concluded after a moment. [It's like... How big is this tower anyway?]
"Probably not big enough for that," Aster said. He knew exactly what Avander was getting at. That echoing quality to the noise made it sound as though they were in a bigger, more resonant space than they actually were. The tower wasn't small, especially at its base, but it wasn't the kind of deep cavernous space that would produce these acoustics either, from what he could see.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 27, 2019 9:35:42 GMT -6
What that meant for them, he couldn't say. If this was a work of magic, it wasn't a type he was familiar with. Not that this was saying very much, as he was no great student of it, but still.
The two of them waited for a moment to see if anything more would come of it, or at the very least to see if they would hear anything more, but nothing came. Eventually, Aster shook his head. "We might as well push on," he said. There was no sense in waiting around for the thing to find them if they didn't even have the slightest idea where it was right now. Sure, they could try to set up an ambush, but there was no guarantee that the thing in the tower would even come their way. Better to do any and all planning once they got something like a more solid lead on what they were facing.
(Avander: +2)
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 27, 2019 9:36:28 GMT -6
Avander said nothing, but continued forward. This first room, judging from what Aster could make out of the furniture strewn about, was something of a receiving hall, mostly furnished for the benefit of any visitors the tower might receive. Past it, there were a couple of what he could only have called pleasure rooms--- places for light reading and tea, one of them with a back door that led out to a garden. The two of them took a cursory look through these, but there was nothing to really see. Whatever had torn through the main room hadn't seen fit to ransack these ones.
Aside from these, there was only the staircase, leading both down and up. Seeing it, Aster's lips pressed into a thin line. So this place had an underground element to it too... He wasn't surprised, but it was beginning to feel a little like he was doomed to fight all his battles underground.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 27, 2019 9:37:44 GMT -6
Rationally there was no guarantee of that. The thing he was being sent to kill might well be higher up in the tower instead. But the underground portion was more likely to be larger, and the general mess of the receiving room did seem to trail downstairs rather than up. That seemed to suggest that the whole mess had at least started below ground rather than elsewhere, though it was true that the thing could have moved since then.
[Are we going?] said Avander. The drake had been walking ahead until they reached the stairs, and now he stood at Aster's side, waiting for him to come to a decision. The fact that he wasn't saying anything more must have meant he didn't have any more information to offer. Aster sighed; it was too much to hope for, that they would find it right away and have the whole thing over with so quickly.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Jul 27, 2019 9:51:52 GMT -6
"We're going," Aster said. No use dragging his feet about it. The sooner they found it, the better off they were, and they weren't going to find it standing around like they were right now.
The staircase was fortunately wide enough to permit something of Avander's size to pass, but it wasn't much wider than that, so they had to proceed single file. Avander took point again, though stairs were evidently less comfortable for him to pick his way across than a room strewn with debris. He went slowly, while Aster followed, tamping down on his own impatience. It wasn't that he blamed Avander for being slow, but it was an uncomfortable sort of thing to creep down the stairs, the whole of his vision blocked by the bulk of a drake's body in front of him.
After what seemed like an age, they finally reached the bottom. Aster stepped around Avander as soon as there was enough room to do it.
|
|